Quote:
Originally Posted by Benat
Yes sorry, it’s not an actual “free bet” it’s bet £5 as a side bet and if it loses they return it
I'm still a bit confused. Of course you lose the free bet when you lose. What happens to the free bet when you win? Is it used up and the casino takes it back, or does it go into your balance as real money with the rest of your winnings?
Under the assumption that the former happens, we can calculate the player edge of a free bet by taking a weighted average of the payouts.
For Perfect Pairs under the above paytable this is:
(1456*25+1664*12+3328*6)/86320*£5 = £4.42
For 21+3 under the above paytable this is:
(2912*100+24576*40+61568*30+368640*10+700928*5)/11912160*5 = £4.33
I didn't want to do the math myself, so I got the number of combinations for each bet from
https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/appendix/8/
It's worth noting that 21+3 has a lower house edge normally, and it looks like more of a long shot, but Pair Plus is still better for free bets. The long shot is always better with these free bets when you're getting straight odds (like in roulette you should bet a single number), but these paytables with various types of odds make things more complicated.
Edit: Congrats! You just made 4.5p in EV, assuming you were 50-50 to choose correctly before.